Sports

Test debut for Ratnayake at Old Trafford?

Published

2 years ago

2024/08/19

Sri Lanka are contemplating handing Milan Ratnayake his Test debut at Old Trafford but it will be a tough ask to leave out Lahiru Kumara, who was the team’s best bowler in their last series win.

Rex Clementine
in Manchester

After Sri Lanka were beaten by England Lions in Worcester with two sessions to spare in the four day game, there was no packing of bags and getting ready to head to the next location – Manchester. Instead, the entire team was in the middle for a training session that went beyond two hours. One exception was uncapped fast bowler Milan Ratnayake.

Sri Lanka played three quicks for the four day game in Worcester that ended on Saturday. Right-arm seamer Asitha Fernando and his namesake Vishwa Fernando, a left-arm seam bowler, were rested from the warm-up game as they were certainties for Old Trafford. So, from the three quicks who played in Worcester, only one was going to feature in the first Test.

Lahiru Kumara, having bowled so well should be backed as the third seamer ahead of Kasun Rajitha and Milan Ratnayake. However, although both Kumara and Rajitha bowled after the game during the training session, Ratnayake was told to take a breather. That’s because of the three seamers, he was the most impressive in Worcester and he could be in line for his Test debut in three days’ time.

However, having said that, it will be a huge call to make for Kumara is Sri Lanka’s quickest bowler and was the highest wicket taker in Sri Lanka’s last series win.

Ratnayake’s ability to bat and bowl well with the older ball are factors that are in favour of him. Selector on tour Ajantha Mendis has a tough call to make.

Born in Kurunegala, Ratnayake learned his cricket at the far off Sri Sumangala Vidyalaya, Wariyapola. Standing at six feet and one inch, the 28-year-old represented Air Force in domestic cricket before moving to Australia.

Ratnayake played cricket in Australia for a couple of years but things didn’t work out with COVID and he returned home and has forced his way back into the senior side with good performance in domestic cricket.

Sri Lanka’s batting was a flop during the warm-up game. In the first innings, it was damp and overcast and the moving ball had the batters work cut out. But in the second essay, when the sun was out, you expected them to do much better.

In fact, they started off well with the openers adding 105 runs. Nishan Madushka was on course for a hundred that would have done his confidence lot of good ahead of the Test series. But he threw it away taking on the off-spinner.

Angelo Mathews and Sadeera Samarawickrama also gave their wickets away to the off-spinner with the former captain attempting a reverse sweep but was unable to execute it properly.

Captain Dhananjaya de Silva, like Mathews scored a half-century but fell to the second new ball shouldering arms.

In the first innings, Sri Lanka were shot out for 139 but fared much better scoring 306 in the second essay. They could have easily posted over 400 runs in the second innings and that would have tested England Lions.

You should not read too much into these warm-up games. The team usually bring up their best game when Test matches get underway.

Not often Sri Lanka get to play in England in the second half of the summer when the wickets have flattened out and the sun is out. Playing Test matches in May is quite a task when wickets are fresh and it is gloomy, dark and damp.

Old Trafford this season has been spinning a lot and Prabath Jayasuriya could have a major impact in the series. Asitha Fernando is a much improved bowler and has won Sri Lanka a few games. Vishwa Fernando, though, is Sri Lanka’s trump card. He featured for Yorkshire this year and had a good season.

Sri Lanka will be back in London next week for back to back Test matches at Lord’s and The Oval. They have not played a Test match at The Oval for 26 years now. Lord’s is nostalgic yes, but the other London Test ground has its own unique place in cricket having hosted the first ever Test match in England. Traditionally, The Oval also hosts the last Test match of the English season.

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Nervous Pakistan face Namibia with final Super Eight spot on the line

Published

8 mins ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

Salman Agha gives a pep talk [Cricinfo]

After the reality check of the India game, Pakistan have only one goal for this final group match against Namibia – do not lose.

Victory – or a washout – will secure them a Super Eight berth, which they famously failed to qualify for in 2024, at USA’s expense. Should Namibia spring a surprise, it will once more be USA that progress at Pakistan’s expense, and condemn them to a third straight first-round exit at a men’s ICC event.

Pakistan should comfortably have enough to overcome a Namibian side that is winless in Group A. But frayed nerves can play havoc should the Namibians find a way to turn this into a scrap. Against Netherlands in the tournament opener, Pakistan found themselves on the brink of defeat after a couple of wickets during a routine chase saw them dramatically lose their way.

But the loss against India, and the magnitude of the defeat, is likely to have shaken confidence. The one-dimensional bowling plans were clearly exposed by India, with Pakistan in possession of no credible seam option bar a struggling Shaheen Afridi. With the bat, the failure of the top order effectively killed off the game inside the first two overs.

There is likely to be a sweep of changes after the loss against India for Pakistan, with a tweak to their bowling combination that allows more pace. However, they will be aware they need to do a little more than was required of them against USA last week, when a clinical – if not overwhelming – performance proved too much for the Americans.

Namibia do not possess anywhere near the same quality, but, already eliminated, they go into the game with a level of freedom Pakistan do not possess. Their strength lies at the top of the batting order, where they caused discomfort to both the USA and the Netherlands, though not for long enough to convert it into points. They will need to play the perfect game, and for long enough, to cause the upset of the tournament and do their fellow Associates a big favour.

Saim Ayub has established his all-round T20 credentials, but as yet, a standout innings with the bat at an T20 World Cup remains elusive. He came into this tournament in imperious form, but three matches in Sri Lanka have seen him restricted to cameos at best, with 49 runs in three innings. That built on from the 2024 World Cup, where he couldn’t kick on in the two games he played. It has amounted to a T20 World Cup average of 14.40 at a strike rate just above 18, both well below his overall career numbers. Against Namibia, Pakistan may require him to settle nerves, whether it’s with a blistering start that bats the opposition out of the game, or breaks the back of a target. It is, after all, what Pakistan’s continued participation in the tournament could come down to.

Louren Steenkamp may be relatively new to the Namibian side, but he is already among their most explosive run-scorers. With a strike rate of just under 133, only Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton has scored at a higher rate through his Namibian career. A failure against Netherlands, he has taken charge of the Namibian innings, facing the first ball and getting them off to flyers against both India and the USA. He was particularly tough on Arshdeep Singh, taking 22 runs off nine balls against him, and following up with 58 off 39 against USA. Namibia will need him to bat through the powerplay, and possibly longer, against a Pakistan attack short on confidence, piling pressure on them in a game where the stakes are already high.

Pakistan are expected to ring in the changes after a widely panned performance against India. At least three are certain to happen, with quick bowlers Naseem Shah and Salman Mirza set to come in, while one, or even both, of Fakhar Zaman and Khawaja Nafay being called up for their first games this tournament would not be a surprise. Shaheen looks certain to drop to the bench, with Babar Azam similarly precarious.

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt), Babar Azam/Khawaja Nafay, Shadab Khan/Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed

Namibia made a couple of changes to their side for the game against USA, and may make one more here. Fast bowler Max Heingo has endured a difficult start, bowling four wicketless overs across three matches and conceding 52. Jack Brassell is the obvious replacement.

Namibia: Jan Frylinck, Louren Steenkamp, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), JJ Smit, 6 Zane Green (wk), Dylan Leicher, Ruben Trumpelmann, Willem Myburgh, Bernard Scholtz, Jack Brassell

[Cricinfo]

Foreign News

Six athletes to compete under Russian flag at Paralympics

Published

22 mins ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

The Russian flag has not been flown at a Paralympic Games since 2014 [BBC]

Six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will compete under their nations’ flags at the upcoming Winter Paralympics.

In September, the International Paralympic Committee lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing at the Games.

Both countries were suspended from Paralympic competition after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Belarus a close ally of Russia. A partial ban – allowing athletes to compete as neutrals – was introduced in 2023.

However, the four individual governing bodies in charge of the six sports contested at the Paralympics decided to keep their bans in place.

In December, Russia and Belarus won an appeal against FIS – the governing body for skiing and snowboarding – at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), permitting them to compete and accumulate ranking points.

The IPC confirmed to BBC Sport that the 10 athletes have been awarded bipartite commission invitations to compete in Para-alpine skiing, Para-cross country skiing and Para-snowboarding at the Milan-Cortina Games.

“The IPC can confirm that NPC Russia has been awarded a total of six slots: two in Para-alpine skiing (one male, one female), two in Para-cross country skiing (one male, one female), and two in Para-snowboard (both male),” it said in a statement.

“NPC Belarus has been awarded four slots in total, all in cross-country skiing (one male and three female).”

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said it was “completely the wrong decision”.

“Allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under their own flags while the brutal invasion of Ukraine continues sends a terrible message,” Nandy wrote on X.

“The International Paralympic Committee should reconsider this decision urgently.”

Bipartite commission invites are granted to individual athletes, rather than their international federation, and allow the participation of top athletes “who may not have had the opportunity to qualify through other methods due to extraordinary circumstances”, among other factors.

Ukraine has also been awarded bipartite slots in three sports.

It will mark the first time a Russian flag has been flown at a Paralympic Games since the Sochi 2014 Games, firstly due to the country’s state-sponsored doping programme, before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian news agency TASS reports that among the athletes set to compete are Aleksey Bugaev, a three-time Paralympic champion in alpine skiing, and cross-country skiers Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian – both are World Championship medallists.

All three returned to competition in January, and both Bugaev and Bagiian have since won World Cup titles.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics will take place from 6-15 March.

[BBC]

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Plucky UAE look to sign off on a high with South Africa scalp

Published

35 mins ago

2026/02/18

Priyan

Haider Ali and UAE will want to end their campaign on a winning note [Cricinfo]

The threat of rain looms over South Africa’s final group stage game in the T20 World Cup 2026, but for a change, there is no jeopardy of weather-induced heartbreak for last year’s finalists. They have won their three games so far, and already secured their spot in the Super Eight.

They will, however, want to keep up their winning habit, and go into the next round with a perfect record. The match against UAE will also see South Africa play their first game outside Ahmedabad this World Cup, so it will be a test for them in comparatively unfamiliar conditions.

The match will offer South Africa a chance to rotate, and also work on any potential weaknesses they may have identified so far.

They come up against a UAE side that showed plenty of fight in their last match against Afghanistan. Although it ended in defeat, Alishan Sharafu and Sohaib Khan’s knocks, as well as their bowling display for most parts of Afghanistan’s chase, will give them confidence.

That game was also a day match in Delhi, so UAE will feel they have a better grasp of the conditions.

They may not have qualification to play for, but a chance to end their campaign by slaying a giant will be ample motivation for UAE.

With just two wickets in three games, it’s been a quiet World Cup so far for South Africa’s pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada. As one of South Africa’s talismans, he will want to improve those numbers and go into the Super Eight stage high on confidence. It was the fast bowlers who enjoyed better results in the last game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, and Rabada will want to make his mark felt.

UAE’s captain and their most prolific run-getter, Muhammad Waseem, began the World Cup with a half-century against New Zealand, but returned scores of 4 and 10 in their next two games. Against a strong South African bowling lineup, UAE will want Waseem to use his experience and lead the batting lineup from the front.

The match against UAE provides an opportunity for South Africa to rest a player or two before the next round of the tournament, as well as give some minutes to players who haven’t had a chance to play in this World Cup so far. South Africa could hand a game to Jason Smith, who for long looked like he was going to be South Africa’s finisher until Tristan Stubbs’ resurgence to form in the SA20 and his late call-up thanks to Donovan Ferreira’s injury.

South Africa XI (probable): Aiden Markram (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs/Jason Smith, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj/George Linde, Lungi Ngidi/Anrich Nortje

UAE are unlikely to make a change to the side that took on Afghanistan.

UAE XI (probable): Muhammad Waseem (capt), Aryansh Sharma (wk), Alishan Sharafu, Sohaib Khan, Syed Haider, Harshit Kaushik, Muhammad Arfan, Haider Ali, Simranjeet Singh, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Jawadullah